Building up believers and the New Testament church

The Basis of All Things

To Live in the Flesh is Death

The "gospel" of our day has taught believers that God has given them salvation, separate from Christ, and that it is a gift they can never lose. This causes believers to believe in doctrine rather than knowing that their salvation is in a Person. There is no salvation outside of a relationship with God in Christ Jesus. He did not come to help us live a better life, but rather to give us a new life, and unless we have that new life we cannot even see the kingdom of God. 1 John 2:29 tells us, "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him." We cannot do righteously unless we are moving in union with God. We are either in the Spirit or we are in the flesh. There is no in-between. Romans 8:8-9 is very plain when it says, "And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you..." This means that if we continually live in His life, we continue to live out of our union with Him, the Spirit. "So then brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if you live after the flesh, ye must die, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." If we are sons of God, it is because we have submitted to God's righteousness. We must realize that nothing good can come out of ourselves separate from Christ; yet some "Christians" find themselves trying to establish their own righteousness by the things they do or don't do.

Why do we think that we can start in the Spirit and finish in the flesh? Many in our time have gone the way the Galatians went, trying to do something for their salvation rather than allowing the works to proceed from their union with God by the Spirit. There is only one place to start from, and that is in relationship with God. This means life, new life, knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ, experiencing His power (ability), His wisdom, and His understanding in every step we take. It is not trying to copy the life of Jesus, but continually living in union with Him: Christ in you is the hope of glory.

Paul said it in this way, "The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Faith is the only working that makes Christ our righteousness, the only way we can talk and work in union with God. Faith is the realm in which God is working. Paul told the Galatians they had fallen from grace when they started trusting in something they had done separate from their union with the Spirit. The righteous shall live by faith. Paul also warned in Galatians 5:9, "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." There can be no mixture of flesh and Spirit. Galatians 5:4 says it plainly, "Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law (your own works); ye are fallen from grace."

This does not mean the Christian cannot sin or make a mistake; but rather that he will not continue to sin, living separately from God. Repentance is the answer to our mistakes (sin). Repentance must bring us back to a relationship with God, or it is not repentance. Without a relationship there is no salvation. Remember, salvation is not a free gift separate from Christ. We do not "lose our salvation automatically," but when we move separately from our relationship in Christ and find our life being lived unto self, there is no salvation. James tells us in 1:14-17, "But each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin, and sin when it is full grown, bringeth forth death. Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning."